Lange has a new range of ski touring boots for winter 21/22, and SkiKitInfo’s been thoroughly testing the XT3 Tour Pro to give you and in-depth test and review.
Here’s the full video, so you can see just what we think of this new tour offering from Lange.
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VIDEO TRANSCRIPT
Maybe you prefer words to watching us talk, so here’s the transcript from the video.
If you want to jump to a specific part of the video, the timestamps are given at the bottom of this page. If you click the timestamp, it will take you to YouTube at the relevant part of the video.
This is Lange’s XT3 Tour Pro pro boot, part of the new XT3 Tour family for winter 21/ 22. We’re going to talk about this, the Sport model and the standard XT3 Tour in this video.
I want to say a massive thank you to Hemel Snow Centre,. Without that facility, that indoor snow slope just outside London, we would not have been able to finish our testing for this season given the tough winter that we’ve all had due to the Covid pandemic.
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XT3 Tour Range
So, the XT3 Tour range is all new for winner 21/22, builds on the success of the XT3 boot and they’re really impressive. I’ve skied these quite a bit now and there’s lots of benefits to it. There are some things I would change in it, which we will talk about later on, but overall for something that is around one and a half kilos for a boot, that skis this well and has such mobility in the cuff, it’s pretty awesome.
The benefits for this boot are numerous. It’s relatively light, it’s quoted weight for this is 1,520 grams. This boot actually weighs at 1,552 grams – 1,554 grams, so averaging around about that 1,550 – 1,555g weight , so it’s not too heavy but it isn’t the lightest boot out there. They didn’t want to create the lightest boot, is my understanding, they still wanted that Lange performance and Lange feel and they’ve delivered on that promise.
Dual Core
It uses their Dual Core injection, they call it Dual Core Light, so we’ve got Grilamid around the clog on this, the XT3 Tour Pro, as well as on the next model down, the 110 flex XT3 Tour Sport. Now, Grilamid is good because it’s thermostable; it doesn’t get super soft in the spring and then super stiff in the winter, as a pure polyurethane boot can do. The XT3 Tour Sport, that boots only a few grams heavier than this because it shares that construction. Like this boot, you’ve got the polypropylene cuff. And then they’ve got the base model, the XT3 Tour. Softer flex, 100 versus the 110 for the Sport and the 130 for the Pro, and that standard xt3 tour boot also has a slightly different construction; you’ve got PU for the clog rather than Grilamid.
The Dual Core injection, where they can put different densities of plastic into the mould at the same time, gives them awesome rebound and feel. For me, the benefit in Dual Core, and it’s noticeable straight away, is actually their progressive flex when you’re skiing them; it’s not just the flex and stop nature that you can get with two piece construction boots sometimes. You get a really progressive flex, so it’s easy to flex at first and then the pressure ramps up and it gets stiffer as you come forward in the flex of that boot, when you’re skiing, which gives you a fantastic sensation driving everything from big relatively stiff free ride skis like this through to softer lightweight models like these.
Rebound
It is a bit more locked in the spine because we’ve got this walk mode. It is a metal system so it really does hold you in well when you’re skiing. You get quite a lot of rebound out the front of the cuff but you do get some rebound out the back. Sometimes with touring boots, where you’ve got a huge aluminium lever, the spines feel quite locked and most of the rebound comes out the front of the boot. Not so with this; you get that smoother flex which is really really nice for skiing.
Buckles
Standard four buckle configuration at the front. You can see here we’ve got the buckle on the inside of the boot here and that means that the buckle doesn’t open as easily when you’re hiking in snow and it can catch and open these. You can actually swap them around so you’ve got both buckles on the outside of the boot if you want that regular Alpine setup, but it’s only the front one that changes.
If you do it swap the left and right buckles around so that you have the ramp on the correct placement.
Shape & fit
Really nice fit. Even though there’s no huge navicular punch in this boot you don’t get pressure there. It’s really noticeable for me with ski boots, I’ve got a really sharp bone that sticks out of my foot in the navicular area. I prefer boots typically that have this kind of expansion here; never had an issue with this boot.
I also get pressure over the top of my foot in some boots, not an issue in this at all. It’s not a tall boot, it doesn’t have loads of room, it’s a 99mm last.
Classic Lange feel in the heel, so you’ve got good heel hold. If you have a really wide heel this boot’s not really going to work for you but if you like that heel hold, if you’re a performance skier, then having that snug fit around the back of the foot is a massive benefit.
If you ski a 98 or a 99mm last boot normally and you like that snug fit these are going to work really well. There’s quite a few touring-style freeride boots out there that claim to be 98 and 99mm but can actually feel quite wide in the forefoot. This doesn’t, it feels bang on for its last.
Nice hold around the toes but enough room to wiggle and this is a 26 and a half; I take a 26 and a half (mondo-point) classically, this is great sizing.
Tour Light liner
The new liner their EVA Tour Light liner is superb. It’s actually got a pretty stiff tongue in it so plenty of support in there. Yes it’s drawstring closure so it keeps nice and snug around your leg when you’re touring which is great and the velcro closure is a nice touch and does help just keep it locked around your ankle and lower leg when you’re touring.
You’ve also got this flex zone in the back so when you’re in tour mode you’ve got plenty flex backwards. You get a fantastic thermo-formable fit. You can see you’ve got nice shaping in the toe box, it’s not too tapered but at the same time it’s not a really square toe box, but the hold around the heel is really positive. At first it feels really snug but it molds really really nicely. It’s not so aggressive on the Achilles, which is great, you’ve got enough padding so that, when you are touring and you’re in tour mode in this boot, your heel on either side is not getting chewed to bits which can happen on some liners.
It definitely benefits from being moulded.
Pricing
This XT3 Tour Pro retails around $950, around €720, £640. So you are spending a bit on the boot. It is certainly worth investing the time and effort at your local ski shop with their professional fitters to get this boot to work the best that it can for you. Don’t try and skimp, go online, order it and fit at home in the oven; it may all go horribly wrong. And don’t think that cheap is better value. Go to your local ski shop, don’t underestimate the value of the expert advice they’ve got for you.
This is a brilliant boot but it might not actually work for your body shape for your foot shape and your skiing so go along and talk to them and make sure you get in the right product.
The XT3 Tour Sport, the 110 flex model, is a little bit less; it’s $800, €620, £550. Similar weight at around five grams heavier or so than the XT3 Tour Pro.
And then you’ve got the base model, the XT3 Tour. Softer flex at 100 slightly different construction. The price for that is €520, £460. Currently no price available for North America for that so do just check online if you’re interested in that model.
Touring-norm sole
This comes with an ISO 9523 rockered full rubber touring norm sole. 303mm sole length; this is a 26 and a half.
It has Dynafit certified inserts; they even come with a little orange plastic on. so you can use it in pin bindings and you can use it in multi-norm bindings. It is a touring norm sole, so you can’t use this in regular downhill bindings and really you shouldn’t be using it in Grip Walk bindings.
If you’re unsure about boot binding compatibility check out the info we’ve got about that on SkiKitInfo.com.
Really easy walk-mode switch, metal on metal lock, and then we can open it up in the back and that releases so we go into tour mode. It’s easier to show you this in hand when I’ve just got the shell.
Buckles when touring
The buckles at the top, they have a little keeper; this is one of the flaws with this boot. It would be much better if they had little wire bails on here so you could lock it wherever you wanted. Sometimes with these, when you’re touring, it can just pop out. It’s not a massive issue but it would be better if they had little wire gatekeepers on there.
The buckles lock forward on the cuff, which is a nice touch in tour mode, because it holds it open, and then you’ve got your standard Velcro power strap you can adjust.
Cuff range of motion
In tour mode you’ve got 53 degrees range of motion in the cuff, so you can get a really wide stride, a nice broad stride, when you’re touring and I found skinning in this really easy. It’s not the lightest boot, we know that, but in terms of the versatility across different products it’s pretty awesome. Really easy to flick this even through your ski pants; nice easy boot to skin in. To be honest some people obsess about the range of motion in the cuff. You can get 60 degrees, pretty much standard in touring boots; you can go more than 60 degrees.
A lot of people don’t have that much movement in their ankle and can’t stride that long when they’re skinning so just be realistic about what you’re looking for in the boot.
For what you get in skiing performance in these I’m more than happy with 53 degrees range of motion in the cuff. Some boots can have a quoted kind of 45 or 50 degrees in the cuff and actually they don’t move that much. Once you get the liner in there, you have them set up in tour mode, they don’t move that much This has a really free motion in the cuff so it does tour really well.
Stylish design
Really nice damn here to keep the moisture out; benefit when you’re touring and trudging through deeper snow and actually it looks really good. Sometimes it seems a bit of an afterthought on boots but Lange have designed it to look really neat, really stylish.
It’s a really good looking boot. It has that classic blue Lange heritage feel as well
Now, the Sport and the standard XT3 Tour don’t have this look, they’re in different colours. This is the standout model. Full rockered sole, walking in it’s really easy.
Insulated boot board
The boot board inside, which unfortunately I can’t remove to show you, but they talk about it having a rockered profile to give you that more natural walking motion.
So this is a boot board out of a standard downhill boot and actually they’re not perfectly flat; they do have a curve in them, and the boot board in this doesn’t feel too dissimilar so there’s not a real noticeable difference in that. Now that standard boot board is quite hard, quite cold plastic, it doesn’t give you loads of insulation.
The boot board in these is an expanded foam so it does give you more insulation underfoot; great for those days where you’re trudging through snow or hiking a lot.
Downsides
Interesting they’ve put an ISO 9523 sole on it. Look, who is the sister company of Lange, don’t make any multi-norm bindings. They make Grip Walk downhill bindings, so you can use a flat soled downhill boot or a curved grip walk boot but they’re not for ISO 9523 boots. So really, you either need to go with a frame touring binding or a pin binding.
Now, Look offer pin bindings; they’re essentially rebranded Dynafit bindings.
If you want to step in the binding in a typical Alpine feel then you might need to look at something like the Duke PT or the Salomon/ Atomic/Armada Shift. Both of these have pins in the toe for touring but the way that they’re designed means you step into them like a regular downhill binding for ski mode, and they work with Grip Walk, with ISO 5355 boots, with the older style Walk-to-Ride boots and with ISO 9523 alpine touring boots.
There are some downhill bindings that don’t have a tour mode that are multi-norm so you can use it in those as well. It would be even more compatible with a greater range of products if they put a Grip Walk sole on it.
No Grip Walk
Now, they’ve got Grip Walk soles on some of their other freeride touring boots. This does give you better traction, if you are going to be hiking for those lines you’re going to be doing a little bit of ski mountaineering, then you do get better grip on this and you do get a better walking sensation than with a Grip Walk sole. But it doesn’t work with as many bindings.
Swapping buckles
Swapping this buckle at the front. It comes in the box with two different size Allen keys because, even though there’s one Allen bolt there – one Allen bolt there, they have different sized heads; not sure why you’d do that.
It seems to over complicate something that is really quite simple and they’re a total faff to change.
The nuts on the inside aren’t captivated so you have to get your hand in there to hold them. Yeah, it’s more complicated than you might expect. You’ve got to swap the buckles between the boots to get them the right way around but, to be honest, you’re not going to be doing it loads. I just don’t understand why they’ve used different size Allen heads on the bolts; sort it out.
Summary of Lange XT3 Tour range
This boot is brilliant in many ways: it skis fantastically well, it’s light enough for a good amount of touring, really easy to use walk mode. Liner; loads of support, loads of grip, moulds well. It’s not a heat mouldable shell; I don’t think you lose out. A professional fitter in a shop will be able to get this to work for you, if your foot shape is right for the boot and just needs some tweaking; not a problem. The general shape out the box is brilliant. We tested this boot with the Salomon QST 99.
It’s a pretty beefy ski, it’s got the Shift on it and this drives it without issue. It’s laterally stiff enough, you’ve got great rebound and power through the cuff. It skis like a 130 downhill boot. The beauty is you can use it on a ski like this and then you could use it on lighter-weight touring product.
This is more your kind of all-mountain touring product.
This is dedicated touring so it’s a lighter ski. Yes you could argue that this boot is too stiff and would overpower them, really you’d be looking at a lighter weight boot; maybe something around 1,200 grams – a kilo. But this has got really strong construction, it’s quite a powerful ski and this boot can perform really well on that without over flexing it.
As a usable, versatile, freeride boot that allows you to go touring, so free-touring,this is awesome. And that’s Lange’s XT3 Tour range of boots for winter 21/22.
Thanks for watching, I hope you liked the video. Click the like if you do, share it if you want to let other people see it and we’ll see you in the next review sometime soon. Have a great time skiing and we look forward to seeing the mountains sometime soon.
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All of the info, reviews and testing by SkiKitInfo.com is independent and unbiased, to give you a full and honest appraisal of the products. Brands don’t pay us to review their kit or have any say in how the review turns out. We’re all passionate ski experts and want you to have the best information available.
Timestamps
Here are the timestamps for the Lange XT3 Tour range review, in case you want to jump to a specific part of the video. If you click the timestamp, it will take you to YouTube at the relevant part of the video.
00:00 – Intro
00:54 – XT3 Tour range overview
01:36 – Weight versus performance
02:04 – Construction
03:00 – Dual Core
03:26 – Flex characteristic of XT3 Tour boots
04:14 – Buckle configuration options
04:47 – Fit around foot & heel
06:02 – Liner
07:07 – XT3 Tour Pro pricing
07:54 – XT3 Tour Sports price & weight
08:13 – XT3 Tour price & weight
08:27 – Sole specs & ski binding compatibility
09:11 – Walk/tour mode function
10:30 – Range of motion (ROM)
11:10 – Boot aesthetic
11:45 – Boot board
12:27 – Downsides
15:06 – Summary
15:35 – Ski suitability
Quoted Prices
*Prices quoted here can be a mixture of recommended retail price from the brand and prices that you can currently get the kit for from retailers in that territory. The prices may therefore be less or more than you can find in-store / online and are only intended to give you a guide as to what you may expect to pay.
Always ensure you do adequate research when buying ski equipment to ensure you’re getting the best service and advice from the retailer, combined with a price that works for your budget. Don’t always assume that cheaper means better value.
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